“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Isaiah 53:3, KJV.
Definition of Despised and root words:
a primitive root; TWOT – 224; v
KJV – despise 36, contemptible 3, contemned 1, disdained 1, vile person 1, scorn 1; 43
1) to despise, hold in contempt, disdain
1a) (Qal) to despise, regard with contempt
1b) (Niphal)
1b1) to be despised
1b2) to be despicable
1b3) to be vile, worthless
1c) (Hiphil) to cause to despise
As I was thinking today about our society today, the many people who think they are followers of Jesus, and yet, I was contemplating this verse and the definition of it. I realized that the “good people” of Jesus’ day were the ones who despised him the most. The people who flocked to see him were the poor, the lepers, the needy, the blind, the women, the children, the outcasts of the synagogue and the ones who were not accepted in the households of the “holy people”.
I see many of us today who feel we are doing what is right; we show amazing judgment when it comes to the wrong in our world today. We judge those who find themselves in sin, and are the first to “cast a stone” when someone is caught in sin. And in some ways this is needed, many so called Christians have turned a blind eye to sin and simply accepted the sin and the person.
I read something this week, where a woman was caught in a sin with a man, yet the man was not held accountable for his sin. He has not repented for his sin or owned up for it, and yet the woman was told things in such a way, that she was rejected for her sin, yet he was accepted. She freely accepts what she did as wrong, asked forgiveness and went above and beyond to be blameless in the matter as much as possible, where as the man, in not so polite language was simple worried about his reputation and made excuses, blaming it all on the other party.
I started to think about Jesus, and what He did, how His ministry was never to the ones who thought they were living right. It was the broken, the ones who felt they had no hope, women who were little more than worthless in that society, and the people who were hated.
I think in our society, there are many people who think they do not need God, or think they already have found Him.
There is a time when we should condemn sin, we should call it out as it is, among believers, but sometimes I see this when we do it to the unbelievers, angry they are not holding to our golden standards.
We rant and rave about the sin in the church, yet I wonder if Jesus came to those dwellings, would He be accepted? Would John the Baptist? He wore animal skins and ate bugs. It was obviously not the normal diet of the day or dress code for a prophet. Jesus did not fast like they thought he should…
“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.” Matthew 11:18, 19, KJV.
I wondered as I sat thinking, if we would have been a Pharisee or one of those publicans’s He was a friend with. I wondered if we would be comparing his robes to see if the borders were wide enough.
“But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,” Matthew 23:5, KJV.
We mayhap might do a similar thing when comparing the size of head coverings or the lack of one on someone’s head. We may judge someone’s clothing choices, or the fact that they have made mistakes in their pasts or others have, which have affected their life circumstances.
I have heard some of the harsh judgment’s other Christian’s put on each other and have done it myself, and never before did I see it through the light of Jesus.
I believe we as Christians, who say we are “Christ like” reflect poorly on the Lord when we are stopping those who have been seeking the Lord with our poor attitudes and stuck up noses.
“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” Matthew 23:13, KJV.
Do we do this? Do we make it so difficult to enter heaven that we can’t go in and we prevent others from going in?
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” Matthew 23:23, 24, KJV.
What are our gnats we are straining at? Are there camels in our life that we are swallowing? How are the levels of mercy, judgment and faith holding up in our lives today?
I believe we need to have balance in our lives. We need judgment in our lives, but tempered with mercy, and upheld by faith.
That this to heart in your own life, look at your daily life, your emails you send, your blog posts and even your Facebook statuses. What are you saying to others around you? Are you telling them to follow an impossible master or are you telling about the man who was most likely homely, had nothing to recommend Him, except great love for others that He loved the unlovable.
“When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:10-12, KJV.
